Ecuador protests denial of US visas for plaintiffs in Chevron oil damages case

Ecuador’s foreign ministry announced on Friday that the US has seemingly denied visas to a delegation that was set to travel to the UN General Assembly in New York to present their case regarding an ongoing dispute against Chevron-Texaco.

According to the ministry’s official announcement, the visas for the five
Ecuadorian nationals were returned by the US Embassy in Quito
“without any explanation.”

That group was to present testimony during a special event at the
UN regarding the ecological impact caused by Chevron-Texaco’s oil
operations in the Amazon rainforest region of Ecuador - which
contaminated two million hectares, according to the country’s
government.

At stake is a US$19 billion judgment awarded by an Ecuadorean
court against Chevron for cleanup and ecological damage, which is
currently being fought at The Hague.

That case faced a setback on Tuesday when an interim ruling in
favor of Texaco Corp., later acquired by Chevron, found that a
1995 agreement absolved the company from claims of
“collective damage.”

Litigation against Chevron-Texaco has been ongoing for two
decades, and stems from the oil company’s operations in the
Amazon which date back to the period between 1972 and 1990.

In February 2011, a judgment by a provincial court in Ecuador
produced the multi-billion dollar award against Chevron. However,
as the company currently has no holdings in Ecuador, the
plaintiffs have instead attempted to force payment in Canada,
Brazil, and Argentina.

The $19 billion verdict was the result of a 1993 lawsuit filed in
New York federal court by a group of American attorneys –
including Steven Donziger - on behalf of 88 residents of the
Amazon rainforest. In the intervening period, Texaco was acquired
by Chevron in 2001, and plaintiffs re-filed their case in Ecuador
in 2003.

For its part, Chevron insists that it was absolved of
responsibility for the environmental damages by a 1995 cleanup
agreement. The oil company places responsibility for the damages
on Petroecuador, Ecuador’s national oil company.

Chevron's legal counsel, Hewitt Pate, said that Tuesday’s ruling
"confirms that the fraudulent claims against Chevron should
not have been brought in the first place."

It was the oil company itself which petitioned the Permanent
Court of Arbitration at The Hague to intervene in the case, under
the authority of the US-Ecuador Bilateral Investment Treaty.

In response to Tuesday’s interim ruling, Chris Gowen, an attorney
working with Donziger, said that he did not recognize its
validity.

“The tribunal’s decision illustrates that Chevron can only
win when it runs away from legitimate institutions and seeks
refuge behind pro-corporate ideologues. This decision was
essentially purchased by Chevron from a completely illegitimate
‘court’ with no authority over the case and the facts,”
Gowen told Businessweek.

This week, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa launched a campaign
dubbed ‘Chevron’s Dirty Hand’ which seeks a global
boycott of Chevron based on its refusal to pay billions in
damages.

“We will expose to the world Chevron's multimillion dollar
campaign to discredit this country. It is a campaign that
involves taking away preferential tariffs, boycotting
international trade with the United States," said President
Correa.

Interestingly, at least a portion of the legal wrangling between
Ecuador and Chevron was exposed by diplomatic cables published by
WikiLeaks, which indicated that the oil company had directly
sought help on the matter from the US government.

A March 2006 cable produced by US officials in
Quito pointed to communication with the oil company on the topic
of damages.

“In previous meetings, Chevron reps have suggested that the
[US government] pressure the [Government of Ecuador] to assume
responsibility for the environmental damage in the areas once
operated by Chevron. Given the complex legal questions and the
questions of fact disputed in the case, it does not seem likely
that any available inducements would convince the [government of
Ecuador] to assume what may amount to billions of dollars of
environmental liability,” the cable states.

If enforced, the judgment against Chevron-Texaco would represent
one of the world’s largest, only coming in behind BP’s $20
billion fund to compensate victims of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil
spill.